| SPINBUSTERS |
| The SPINBUSTERS Motto: Semper Foozle |
| The SPINBUSTERS Pledge: Beholden to None |
| I was living in the southern Oregon town of Powers during the spring of 2000, when Powers High School valedictorian Leslie Shorb decided to streak the boys� shower room, simultaneously shocking five bathing boys, one small town, and the battered sensibilities of a neo-puritanical nation already mired in denial about teenage sexuality. Recently, near where I now reside, ten Coeur d�Alene, Idaho high school boys were charged with felonies for videotaping sex with a fellow student, a sixteen-year-old girl. Is this stuff stalking me, or what? Can I see some I.D.?? The two incidents reveal the extraordinary double standard of justice, based on gender, which our society now perpetrates as a result of four decades of feminist revision of American jurisprudence, values and cultural assumptions. Powers is a tiny, almost hermetically-sealed village tucked in a crevice of the Siskiyou Mountains. It�s stock is primarily Southern migrant, its heritage logging and banditry. Half-a-dozen families constitute fifty percent of the population, and everywhere you look, there�s a Shorb. A Shorb is office manager at the local ranger station, and a Shorb approves timber permits. A Shorb is the local gas jockey and mechanic � and a damn good one, too. The outlaw streak amongst the Shorbs runs deep, like the South Coquille River in spring. Therefore some locals weren�t surprised when valedictorian Leslie Shorb thumbed her nose � and everything else � at neo-puritans across the ideological spectrum by making a dash through the boys� showers before high school graduation. A high-spirited prank, you say? An outpouring of elation that every young person feels upon having successfully survived the system long enough for a diploma? Not in Zero Tolerance America, buster. Bust �er. The Authorities stripped young Leslie of valedictorian status, suspended her, banned her from extracurricular activities, and denied her participation at the senior dance and outing to Mexico. The five boys � apparently for the sin of being alive and showering � were suspended from extracurricular activities. Next time, presumably, they�ll think twice about being born male in America. The townsfolk yakked about nothing else for weeks. Many citizens � especially women � referred to Leslie as a �little girl,� betraying the massive infantilization of American femininity occurring over the past forty years. At eighteen years of age and unmarried, the vast majority of human cultures would have considered her not a child, but an old maid. Many thought her punishment too harsh, others too lenient. For a short time, the town became a mini-battleground of the strange morality and gender politics which now dominates American interpersonal relations and jurisprudence. To her credit, Leslie refused self-victimhood, saying, �It was a spontaneous thing to do � I really didn�t mean for the boys to get in trouble, and I do wish I hadn�t done it for their sake.� Did the American feminine hear that? Read it again if you can�t believe your ears. Bless Leslie for not coming up the next day with a cover story about how the evil boys forced her to streak, and pressing charges to protect her �innocence.� Bless Leslie for thinking of someone other than herself. Anyone other than herself -- even a mere male. I say to hell with Powers of every stripe and politic. I just made Leslie Valedictorian of America. |
| Part one of three |
| WhupStick Victim O' the Week |
| A Tale of Two Cities: Postmodern Descent into Gender |